I found this good-condition hardcover at a local Savers thrift shop. The author was inspired by Wilder's "Little House" books to write a how-to guide for modern girls to undertake traditional pioneer crafts. There's a mix of historical crafts, modern-day equivalents, and personal memoirs, and a variety of topics from making pickles or soap to ice-fishing to the proper way to lace up a corset. (I don't think the actual homesteading women wore corsets at other than formal occasions, but I may be wrong about that.)

One of the themes of the book is to appreciate the pleasure of creating things by hand, whether it's knitting socks or sewing quilts or raising and preserving your own produce. Another is to appreciate improvements in health, safety, and technology - the section on bath-time includes descriptions of sponge-baths vs. the luxury of modern-day plumbing and plentiful hot water!

I've always enjoyed learning how to do things, and spent a little time on a friend's ranch in my youth acquiring skills in tending chickens, making butter, rounding up cattle, and raking hay - none of them skills that I use these days, but it was great fun doing those tasks back in the day. And it gives me a perspective on history and fiction set in earlier times. This book may help provide some such perspective, even if the reader doesn't have the opportunity to practice the skills given here.

I left this book, bagged against the elements, on the footbridge at the Coliseum Ave. entrance to Mine Falls Park at around 3; hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2017 Mother's Day release challenge. ***